


Princess Prom Redux

by Sunfish314



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 22:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17010129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunfish314/pseuds/Sunfish314
Summary: A different ending for the Princess Prom. A different dance for Catra and Adora.





	Princess Prom Redux

**Author's Note:**

> So like most people, I can't get Catra and Adora's prom dance out of my head. I had to help these useless lesbians along a little. Side note, the single line that is sung by the prom band is from the song "Wild Horses," which is originally by the Rolling Stones but you should not imagine that--instead you should imagine the cover by The Sundays, which just happens to also appear in the Sunnydale Prom on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and is altogether hauntingly perfect for this moment.

 

            “What if Bow likes all his new friends better than me? What if _everyone_ does?” Glimmer moaned, drooping herself dramatically over the railing of the ice-sculpture balcony.

            “Glimmer, that’s not gonna happen,” Adora chuckled, amused by this new, spazzy and insecure side of her spunky little friend. She always seemed so confident about everything most of the time. “Trust me. Bow’s not the type to leave all his old friends behind, and neither am…” Adora’s attention drifted away from comforting her friend as her whole awareness of the huge ballroom was whittled down to just one thing: Catra, in a form-fitting maroon tux, the tie hanging loose around her neck, with a self-satisfied smirk splashed across her freckled face. Scorpia towered over her in a killer black strapless dress. Adora just stared. Words failed. After a few silent seconds, Glimmer raised herself up, taking in the blonde girl’s blank face in confusion.

            “Hello? Adora? Brain-freeze much?” The sparkly purple-haired girl shook her friend’s shoulder, frowning at the strange expression on Adora’s face—she looked frozen, blue eyes wide open, like all the air had just been let out of her. Finally, Glimmer followed Adora’s line of sight to where the two Horde soldiers stood bowing before Princess Frosta. “Oh-ho- _ho!_ They think they can just waltz in here and sabotage _our_ Princess Prom? Don’t worry, Adora, I got your back. Let’s go kick their asses!”

            “Glimmer, wait a”—but before Adora could finish her sentence, Glimmer had wrapped a hand around her wrist, and teleported them both from the high balcony down to the raised platform where Princess Frosta sat receiving her guests.

            But the youngest princess in Etheria wouldn’t hear a word of it, suddenly seeming much more mature and commanding than her eleven-and-three-quarters years should allow as she insisted on upholding the centuries-old legacy of the Princess Prom as neutral ground. While Glimmer and Frosta argued, Adora just stood there, still unable to fully process the reaction her body was having to Catra in that tux.

            “Hey Adora,” Catra winked at her, smirking like she’d already won whatever game she was here to play. “Cat got your tongue?” Being addressed directly by the object of her silent staring snapped the blonde girl out of her stupor; and her blank face flushed crimson.

            “Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work,” she spat, telling herself that the way her heart was suddenly pounding was a shot of adrenalin, in anticipation of a fight.

            “Tut-tut, princess,” the cat-eared girl shook her head. “We’re not breaking any rules. Maybe you should try to loosen up a little, you know? Enjoy the party.”

            “Oh, I _will_ enjoy the party. I’ll enjoy watching you every second until this ball is over!” Adora seethed, fists clenched, her whole body trembling with outrage. Glimmer frowned, surprised by her friend’s sudden loss of composure, and put a pacifying hand on her arm.

            “Go ahead. I always knew you liked watching me,” Catra teased, with a flick of her tail as she turned her back on Scorpia, and they both walked off in different directions.

            “Ugh! That wasn’t what I meant!” Adora yelled after her, stamping her foot.

            “Um, Adora, are you okay?” Glimmer asked gently, one eyebrow raised in frank assessment of her friend’s flustered state. “I thought _I_ was the one having the meltdown in the Ice Palace.”

            “I am not having a meltdown!” Adora squeaked, her cheeks redder by the second. “I am in complete control! Glimmer, you follow Scorpia. I’ll stick with Catra.”

            “Don’t you think that’s exactly what she wants you to do?!” the sparkly princess called after her friend; but Adora was already marching away, oblivious to everything but the girl in the tux. She tailed Catra relentlessly for the rest of the night, ignoring everything and everyone else around her. Just when she thought she’d finally caught her former BFF in the act of trying to push Entrapta off the balcony, she was stymied again, as it turned out that Catra had managed to strike up some camaraderie with the quirky science-minded princess from Dryl.

            “She stole my food and asked me to spy on people with her. Is this what love feels like?” Catra teased, leaning back confidently against a pillar with one arm around the purple-haired princess. Adora willed her face not to turn red again; but Catra’s chuckle told her she was not succeeding.

            “Why are you doing this?!” the blonde girl demanded, fists clenched again as her heart pounded out of her chest.

            “Me? I’m not doing anything, Adora,” the dark-haired girl smirked with a shake of her head, as she crossed her arms confidently over her chest. “I told you. I’m just here to enjoy the party.”

            “The formerly-tall-one seems agitated,” Entrapta said into her voice recorder, pulling various monitors out of a bag with her hair and slapping them all over Adora’s face and body. “Elevated respiration and heart rate. Occum’s Razor dictates that the simplest explanation within the context of this social experiment is jealousy.”

            “I—that—I am not jealous!” Adora huffed, peeling the monitors off her skin as she grabbed Entrapta’s wrist and pulled her aside impatiently, pointedly averting her gaze from the blue and yellow eyes that were still smirking at her.

            “Entrapta!” she hissed, dragging the inquisitive science geek into a corner. “You know she’s with the Horde, right?” When Entrapta just blinked at her, the blonde girl rolled her eyes and added, “You know, the Horde? _Our enemy?”_

            “Ohhhh,” Entrapta nodded wisely. “Well in that case we should keep a better eye on her, because she just walked away.” Adora whipped around and groaned in frustration at the empty balcony, leaving the purple pigtailed princess without another word and resuming her hunt for Catra. She was only halfway down the staircase when the first dance was announced; and suddenly the crowd was swarming all around her, washing her like the tide out onto the dance floor. 

On every side, people had coupled up, an almost infinite number of spotlights dazzling the gleaming ice of the ballroom…and then, there was Catra, holding out one gloved hand to her in a formal gesture that would have looked absurd from the cat-eared girl in any other context. The smirk was still there, but…it had softened, somehow, into was the familiar, affectionate smirk that Adora had spent her whole life looking at. No, it _wasn’t_ —that was just another trick. Wasn’t it? More mind games, nothing else.

“May I have this dance, princess?” Catra’s voice was warm and husky, that maddening smirk still making Adora feel like there was something she didn’t know. She hesitated. “It’s rude to refuse a partner once the music has begun, y’know. Didn’t you read the invite?” Adora sighed impatiently and took Catra’s hand.

“Whatever you’re planning, it won’t work,” Adora spat out, her heart rate climbing again as Catra’s hands slipped to her waist, up her back.

“Maybe,” the dark-haired girl shrugged, playing it cool. “But then again, maybe it already has. You’re here, aren’t you?”

“Your…evil plan was to get me to dance with you?” Adora raised one eyebrow. Catra’s face flushed. 

“What? No! I didn’t mean—ugh, whatever. Like I’m gonna tell you anyway.”

“Okay,” Adora agreed mildly; but this time she was the one smirking.

“Don’t be weird,” Catra warned, twirling Adora around in sync with the rest of the room.

“I didn’t say anything,” the blonde girl replied, still smiling as she let Catra lead her through the steps.

“I know what you’re thinking,” the dark-haired girl shot back, her long ears flattening impatiently. “I am _not_ here because I wanted to see you, okay?”

“So why _are_ you here?” Adora asked bluntly. The formal opening dance ended then; and a new, slower song began. Many people drifted to the sides of the dance floor, while others drew closer to each other. One of Catra’s arms wound around Adora’s waist, as a pair of mismatched eyes looked into hers, daring her to walk away. The blonde girl let her arm drape over the back of Catra’s neck.

“Just here to enjoy the party, princess. I told you already.” One of Catra’s long ears flicked, and Adora had to bite back the grin that tugged at the corner of her mouth.

“You know I can tell when you’re lying.”

“Yeah, and you know I’m not just gonna tell you all my evil plans, right?” They smirked at each other for a moment, like they’d just gotten away with something together; stealing extra food from the kitchens, or sneaking back into the barracks after breaking curfew. Adora sighed, and leaned her forehead against Catra’s, just for a moment. 

“I miss you, you know.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you went and left me for a bunch of princesses in prom gowns,” Catra snapped, her frame going stiff as all the gentle familiarity between them vanished like mist, and they both stood up a little straighter, putting a few more inches of space between them on the dance floor.

“You keep saying that,” the blonde girl shook her head, blue eyes flashing angrily. “But you left me too, you know. You made a choice. I wanted you to come with me, Catra. I _begged_ you. If you get to be mad that I chose the Rebellion over you, then I get to be mad that you chose the Horde over me.”

“I didn’t”—

“Yes you did!” Adora’s face was growing flushed again. “Why would you do that, Catra? Why would you choose to stay with Hordak, with _Shadow Weaver,_ when all they’ve ever done is tear you down? I’m the one that lo”—Adora’s voice caught in her chest so sharply, it was like someone had just punched her right in the gut. Both of Catra’s ears perked up, her mismatched eyes suddenly wide as Adora stared back at her looking terrified, with half a word hanging out of her mouth. They were so close now, they could feel how fast both their hearts were pounding. When a few silent seconds passed without Adora finishing her sentence, Catra’s eyes welled up with angry tears, and she pushed the blonde girl away roughly. But Adora grabbed her back, one hand cupping her freckled face and wiping away a tear with her thumb.

“…I’m the one that loves you,” she finished, heart thudding somewhere in her ears now. “Every minute of every day, Catra. And I hate this war for making me leave you, and I hate you for not coming with me, and even when I hate you I still love you. I couldn’t stop loving you if the fate of Etheria depended on it.” Adora’s blue eyes were glittering with unshed tears now; she could barely breathe. The pounding heartbeat in her ears had shifted down into her throat.

Catra didn’t say anything; but she put her hand over Adora’s on the side of her face, lacing their fingers together. They leaned into each other, leaving no space between them as their foreheads pressed together, just barely swaying to the music. _Wild horses couldn’t drag me away_ , crooned the achingly heartfelt voice of the prom band’s lead singer, and all Adora could think was that Catra had never even _seen_ a horse, and how unfair that was, and how she could feel Catra’s heartbeat through the palm of her hand, and how she might actually die if Catra didn’t say something soon—

“So that means I can kiss you, right?” The playful, husky voice cut through all the blonde girl’s internal ramblings, warm breath so close to her lips; and she thought she was going to laugh, but she was crying instead, and Catra was kissing her, both arms wrapped around her neck. And now that thudding heartbeat was Adora’s whole body. Catra’s lips felt like a part of her, like they’d just slipped inside a cocoon and there was no outside world, no Catra and no Adora. There was just Catra and Adora.

“Catra…”

“Scorpia has Bow and Glimmer.” The cocoon of warmth and the full-body heartbeat disappeared, and suddenly they were back in a ballroom made of ice.

“What?” Adora stared blankly into the blue and yellow eyes across from her own, full of love and regret.

“We came here tonight to kidnap your friends. I’m sorry, Adora, I’m sorry for all of it, but we have to go now if we want to stop them”—Catra’s voice was cut off by the sudden blast of half a dozen heat bombs going off at once, as huge pillars of ice exploded, and the ballroom erupted in screaming.

“Shit! They’re already on the ship,” Catra groaned, realizing that she had most definitely lost track of time once she’d started dancing with Adora. “Come with me, right now. We can still save them.” Catra held her hand out to Adora; and suddenly the blonde girl understood how it felt to have the person you love most in the world pull the rug out from under you in an instant. But she also knew about trust—not just how to ask for it now, but how to give it. She looked up into the familiar mismatched eyes that were pleading with her, laying everything on the line for her.

She took Catra’s hand.

 

 

 


End file.
